Zeren Global Revenue Operations Leadership Market Insight

Q1 2023 Global Revenue Operations Leadership Market Report

For many technology businesses, the start of 2023 has provided challenges due to the economic outlook, with the most visible impact being job losses and reduced hiring numbers.

However, there have been plenty of seeds of positivity as we have moved through the start of the year, including the continued growth of Revenue Operations.

Revenue Operations has been gathering momentum over recent years as it reflects a shift for technology businesses to centralise their revenue functions to increase efficiency and profitability, something that is essential more now than ever in a challenging economic climate.

It is being seen as a key pillar for the revenue organisation and a recent article published by Forbes backed this sentiment, highlighting that based on LinkedIn research, Head of Revenue Operations is the fastest growing job title in the US for 2023, with employees transitioning from more typically siloed roles such as Sales Operations, into a broader Revenue Operations focused position.

The positivity surrounding Revenue Operations is clear to see and it is expected to grow even further, as a Gartner report predicts that 75% of the world’s highest-growth companies will have deployed a Revenue Operations model by 2025.

We dug a little deeper into the numbers and these predictions are clear to see…

Global Revenue Operations Landscape

Here is an overview of the research we have undertaken to investigate the numbers and the trends that are emerging…

• There are currently 3,352 Revenue Operations leaders globally across the following job titles:
  • Vice President of Revenue Operations – 1,011 (21% YoY increase)
  • Senior Director of Revenue Operations – 198 (38% YoY increase)
  • Director of Revenue Operations – 1,531 (14% YoY increase)
  • Head of Revenue Operations – 624 (24% YoY increase)
• 19% – the percentage change increase of how much the Revenue Operations leadership talent pool has grown over the past 12 months
• 38% – the increase in Revenue Operations leadership professionals over the past 12 months in the UK alone.
• 940 – the number of these professionals that are Open to Work on LinkedIn
• 926 – the number of leaders that have changed jobs in the last 12 months
• 38% – percentage of female leaders
• 8 years – average tenure of Revenue Operations professionals

Salary benchmarks for Revenue Operations leaders (UK)

With the high demand for Revenue Operations leaders, we asked our UK based RevOps network what salaries they are seeing roles being offered. With 237 respondents we gathered the following results.

• £60-80K basic salary (22%)
• £80-100K basic salary (30%)
• £100K+ basic salary (48%)

Where Revenue Operations Leadership talent is located

Revenue Operations leadership numbers are expanding globally, however, here are some numbers into where the talent is located (top locations with 50+ leaders).

• United States – 2,500 (15% YoY increase)
• United Kingdom – 202 (38% YoY increase)
• Canada – 173 – (26% YoY increase)

Breaking this down further into Cities (50+ leaders).

• New York – 217 (19% YoY increase)
• San Francisco – 125 (6% YoY increase)
• London – 117 (46% YoY increase)
• Austin – 81 (16% YoY increase)
• Boston – 76 (19% YoY increase)
• Chicago – 56 (0% YoY increase)
• Toronto – 55 (25% YoY increase)

It is to be expected that the majority (75%) of Revenue Operations professionals are based in the US, particularly across New York and San Francisco due to the maturity of the US market.

However, it is interesting to see the % growth over the past 12 months, especially in London at 46%.

This highlights not only the maturity of tech and Revenue Operations within the US but also the global expansion of Revenue Operations as we see an increase of growth in leaders in the other markets.

Market Summary

Despite a challenging market over the past 6 months, there are clear signs of growth, particularly within the Revenue Operations landscape.

There has been cautiousness from companies when opening their hiring budgets, however, we are seeing a clear uptick in the number of opportunities available, and seeing higher levels of candidate movement, which is always a good benchmark to judge hiring appetite in any market.

As Revenue Operations take up more prevalence, we are seeing Revenue Operations leaders being hired in earlier-stage companies.

We recently conducted a survey with some of our network to ask the question of where they are seeing Revenue Operations leaders being put in place.

78% of participants stated that it is pre–Series B, with 62% saying Series A. This is a clear sign that leaders are being put in place in earlier-stage companies as the Revenue Operations function has developed over recent times.

The demand for Revenue Operations leaders is high despite the current landscape and it is expected this will continue as the market sees further improvement in the coming months.

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